ABSTRACTS

KEY-NOTE SPEAKERS



Evolutionary Biology and the Purposes of God
Denis Alexander
UK


Ever since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, evolutionary theory has been subject to critical analysis and ideological use as well as abuse. During this period there have been those who have attempted to use the prestige of the theory in support of socialism, capitalism, racism, eugenics, materialism, atheism, theism and new age spirituality. The fact that many of these labels represent incompatible positions should act as a warning against the temptation to utilise scientific theories in support of positions that lie well beyond the ability of science to adjudicate. Nevertheless we can still ask the question as to whether Darwinian evolution is more or less ‘consistent with' a particular world-view. In this respect it is remarkable how quickly Darwinian evolution was baptised into the Christian doctrine of creation in the 19th century, and that enthusiasm for Darwinism has been retained in many segments of the Church ever since. More recently some biologists and philosophers have argued that the evolutionary process displays a degree of randomness and lack of predictability that is incompatible with a providentialist account of the origins of biological diversity. Interestingly, however, recent data have highlighted the highly organised and restricted biological trajectories that evolutionary pathways appear to follow. The phenomenon of convergence, the highly restrained repertoire of protein domain structures, the increasing understanding of finely tuned genomes and the way in which necessity rather than chance dominates the pathway of evolving forms through the contours of fitness landscapes, all point to an overall evolutionary history in which the eventual outcomes are written into the script rather than the result of chance in any metaphysical sense. The contemporary biological understanding of evolution is therefore highly consistent with belief in a creator God who has intentions and purposes for the world in general, and for humankind in particular.


Strategies for Developing the Rome Program
Gennaro Auletta
Italy


The aim of the STOQ (Science, Theology, and the Ontological Quest) Project is to build a philosophical bridge between science and theology in order to integrate philosophical and theological studies with the new results of scientific investigation as well as to contribute to a critical evaluation of the science's enterprise. It is under the patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture and collects the following Pontifical Universities: Gregorian, Lateran, Salesian, Holy Cross, St. Thomas, and the Regina Apostolorum.



Poetry and the Sacred
Horia Bădescu
Romania


The 20th century came to an end without managing to find its own sense, it neglected the Sense, which it peremptorily discarded, by not succeeding to offer mankind anything else but suffering, despair and loneliness. All it could do, to the glory of reason, objectivity and materialism, was teach man how to exist, rather than be. To be means to discover that the world makes sense. A Sense to which, as a part of the world, you contribute by something.
Therefore, the new century and the new millennium challenge mankind to return to the Sense. If he wants to survive, man must re-learn how to be, i. e. to live in the perspective of world's unity, to live for and by the Sense, for and by the Sacred. To inhabit the world poetically, as Hölderlin said.
From such a perspective, it seems to me that it is most necessary to reveal the fact that, since the beginning of human history, underlying, like a constant value, all its hiatuses and spiritual tribulations, there has been a specific form of the human spirit through which the Sense can be revealed and appropriated: Poetry, which accounts for mankind as a part of Being, and for its presence as the essence of the embodied world.
The aim of this paper is to point out the essential data of this specific form of being, its poetic quality - expressed by and in the reality layer of the poem - in its interrelation with the Sacred, inside which it exists and which it reveals. We intend to articulate, in a synthetic presentation, the main aspects raised by the relation of Poetry with the Sacred. The essence of this relation between Poetry and the Sacred is that of a discourse about the absence, the presence, the search for the Divine in a world contains infinite cues about the presence of the latter. The finality of a poem is to look for something that exists while not being. An essence which is equally valid for the specificity of poetic discourse, which constitutes itself and works as a level of being.
On a gnostic level, the relation between Poetry and the Sacred turns out to be an intermediated one. The poet refers to existing, to the being that exists, because, in poetry, the world of phenomena is interposed between the Ego and God. In which the I and God are equally enclosed and they find one in the other. An episteme which gives priority to the relationship with the entity, expressing transcendence through its immanence. One can notice that Poetry operates with the sign of Being, rather than with the sign of the Object. Transferring in reality its specific signs, the signs that the Being puts in its existence to prevent oblivion, Poetry becomes constituted as a "memory" of the Being. In its analogic specificity, poetic language is constituted through images. The resemblance, however, exists beyond the image, as well as in the image itself, because the image is the mystery in the circularity of its existence. It carries in itself, to an equal extent, the being and the non-being, just as, in every creation, the being begins and ends in its eternal endlessness.
On an ontological level, we see the nature of the Sacred as an absolute value and as an absolute, unifying function of the various levels of being, of reality. A double hypostasis, in which its function equals its nature. The function of the Sacred is inductively manifested. The induction field of the Sacred is emotional reality. What is induced is the Sense - the value through which the divine gets a profane representation, the being is actualized in its Being. The Sacred as immanent transcendence and, conversely, as transcendent immanence. We look upon the Sacred as being immanent to the Poetic. The poetic does not create, or increase, the quality of what exists, but raises it to the level of its own quality, revealing and rendering it to it through the agency of affective consciousness. Because, if poetry is "seeing" the Sense in the Creative, if it is the making of the poem itself, as an achievement of an ontological project in the virtuality of the Imaginary, and by that it becomes itself a sense-carrier - in that it reveals it and, by revealing it, expresses it - then the Orphic act appears as a permanent confirmation of the Sense and becomes inseparable from it. If the Sacred is immanent to the poetic, then metaphor (understood as sacred metaphor) is not an analogical performance, but a producer, owner and carrier of value, of Sense. Thus, poetry appears as a mode of being, as power and expressed power, on a specific level of reality. It creates emotional value in the world of Being and expresses the Being in its poetic quality, in its imaginary horizon.


Apophatic Technology and the Mystery of Human Becoming"
Ronald Cole-Turner
USA


Today we live with technologies that are advancing rapidly in their power over nature. Of particular interest are those technologies that modify human biological features, such as the function of the brain or the genetic inheritance that passes from one generation to the next. Some who oppose these technologies claim that they threaten human nature.
Human beings, who reflect the mystery of the divine, are a mystery to themselves. According to Gregory of Nyssa, we human beings do not know our own nature, because the incomprehensibility of the human must correspond or reflect the incomprehensible mystery of the divine. According to Nyssa, "one of the attributes we contemplate in the Divine nature is incomprehensibility of essence." If human beings were comprehensible while God is incomprehensible, it "would prove the defect of the image." On the contrary, the nature of the human mind is "an accurate resemblance to the superior nature, figuring by its own unknowableness the incomprehensible Nature" (On the Making of Man, XI.).
In light of the theological doctrine that human beings are essential incomprehensible, this paper examines claims made about threats to human nature, arguing that these claims are unjustified, but that they reveal a deeper anxiety that should be taken with great seriousness. The deeper problem emerges in the interplay between our notions of humanity, divinity, and technology. Technology, particularly the technologies of human biological self-modification, can be seen as a kind of screen against which we project the image of our desires for our self-improvement. Our desires for longer life or enhanced mental capacity become a new kind of image of the human, not as corresponding to the divine, but to our own desires. In many ways, we no longer see ourselves as made by God in the image of God. More and more we are coming to see ourselves as made by human technology in the image of our own technological projections.
Technology, of course, can only modify the discrete parts of our biological natures. The effects of our technology can never be predicted fully in advance. Technologies of human self-modification will change us in ways that we cannot fully anticipate. In that sense, technology itself is incomprehensible, especially the technologies of human self-modification, which introduce unknown changes to an unknowable nature. Even if it changes many of these parts, perhaps to the point of making our distant descendants into creatures who are unrecognizable to ourselves, it is not at all clear that technology will have changed the incomprehensible mystery that lies at the core of the human. Furthermore, even if we are remade by technology, it does follow that we are not also made by God to participate in the fellowship of the divine life. In the end, perhaps the greatest danger is not that technology will replace God, but that we will think that it does.


Good order in Creation. Religion, science, art - common denominator?
PS Sofronie Drincec
Romania


God made his creation in a rational way. St. Maximus the Confessor develops the rational theology of things. Everything that is created has its own rational way, respects its own order, in harmony with universal order. The man, created after the resemblance of God, is a rational human being and everything he creates has a certain logic.
Religion, the relationship between man and God, science, the human knowledge of world and art, the expression of beauty within the man, reflected in the universe, are all guided by some rules. Outside the good order it cannot exist a good relation between man and God. If there is no respect of hermeneutical principles and of a practical discipline, there is no science. Without any esthetical principles and artist's sacrifice, the art is a non-sense.
The one who praise, the science man and the artist are who they are because each one respects its own rule. To get in relation with his God, the prayer, the religious man, accomplish an ascetic effort and has a prayer method. The science man, the researcher, to get to the essence of knowledge needs a strict intellectual discipline that involves the entire person in an ascetic effort, guided by very rigorous rules. At his turn, the art creator sacrifices himself to see his dream come true. All three men, the prayer, the researcher and the artist, or in other terms, the religious man, the science man and the art creator are, in the same time, officiants and sacrifices, sacerdots and immolations (oblations), after the Logos model, the only difference is that This One, the Divine Word, is The One who receives the holocaust, not like the other logoi created.
In the world of faith, science and art, the ascesis, the rules, the good order and the rigour it is needed. Divine order of things is present everywhere in the universe and most of all in church, laboratory and workshop. The priest, the keeper of universal sacerdotism (the officiant of religious ritual from every hierarchic categories, beginning with the brand new neophyte to the supreme pontiff), the scientist, the one who penetrates all the mysteries of knowledge (at his turn, according to his initiation level, from student to laureate of Nobel Prize) and the artist, the servant of supreme beauty (from the lowest prentice to the grand master of the Art Order) are brothers and sons of the same light, the created light, reflections of the increated light.
Religion, science, art - common denominator? Yes: the Man. beside God Who inspires and sustains everything in a discreet way, the answer of man to God's offer is needed. If God stays hidden behind all things, the man, as a protagonist, ensures the connection between these. There cannot be religion, science and art, without the persons prepared to fallow the rules asked by the order God made in universe.


The unity of knowledge
Mgr. Aldo Giordano


It is urgent to re-discover the unity of knowledge if we are to withstand the tendency towards fragmentation and the failure of scientific disciplines to communicate with each other. When one branch of knowledge claims to have a unilateral and ideological grasp on the whole of reality, it runs the spectacular risk of impoverishing all that is real and all that is human.
Scientific disciplines are ways of grasping reality. They make an essential contribution, but they are not autonomous; none of them can know everything or even every level of reality. "We feel that even when all possible scientific questions have been answered, the problems of life remain completely untouched" (L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-philosophicus, proposition 6.52).
Beyond a scientific regarding of reality is a "symbolic reading" of it. Physical reality, which I can experience and - in some sense - control, directs us deeper, beyond itself, and discloses the inexhaustible riches of human meaning.
An open science is one that would expose itself to philosophical reflection, which addresses the global question of man, inasmuch as it poses the question of truth, the question of man's ultimate significance, the question of reality as a whole, of the absolute.
If philosophy addresses the global question of man, it brings with it a questioning attitude and openness to an answer, but it can never offer a definitive response. Theology appears as its necessary and basic interlocutor. Theology is the science of faith, which studies how the Absolute comes to meet us in history and takes on a face in the experiences of religions and, in a unique way, in Christianity.


Mystery and Rationality in Communion:
A Vision for Religion-and-Science in the
Europe of Tomorrow
Antje Jackelén
Sweden


Europe has a history of cultural and religious diversity. Perceptions of this diversity are currently subject to change, mainly due to an increasing European integration on the one hand and a growing multiplicity of religions and cultures due to migration on the other hand. In this situation, we note two tendencies: the spread of secularization and the return of religion or God. Although apparently contradictory, these trends occur simultaneously. The return of religion and the propagation of atheism are part of the same dynamics.
The interface of these two tendencies gives rise to confusion as well as to the opportunity of shaping the discourse of mystery and rationality in new ways. I argue that this situation harbors a kairotic moment for Eastern and Western traditions: it is the right time for a common contribution of Eastern and Western traditions to the cultural, religious and intellectual life of Europe. Such an endeavor is necessary in order to provide an alternative to rigid rationality on the one hand and boundless relativism on the other hand. If it is going to be successful, it needs to transcend the limits of traditional ecumenism.
The paper discusses possible shapes of such a contribution. I argue that preferably this common endeavor can be hosted by and cultivated within the religion-and-science dialogue. The analysis of the key notions ‘mystery' and ‘rationality' reveals the crucial importance of what I call "the apophatic surplus". This, in turn is highly compatible with current research on emergence, defined as "something more from nothing but" (U. Goodenough, T. Deacon).


Quantum Apophaticism - Interface in the
Dialogue between Theology and Science.
Adrian Lemeni
Romania


The paradigm of contemporary science offers a framework for a real encounter between the theological and scientific perspectives of the world. The epistemological implications of quantum physics presuppose science's impossibility of reaching and exhausting the truth of the world and of human beings through exclusively analytical and empirical research. While in the condition of acknowledging and assuming the limits of human possibilities in the action of knowledge, this is closer to the Truth than in the case of a demiurge like conscience which pretends that it can know and predetermine everything in a discursive way. In such a framework there is a chance that theology and science may no longer be considered irreconcilable.
Quantum physics recovers the principle of discontinuity in the scientific and epistemological side, and through this favors the relationship of scientific knowledge with religious thought. Quantum implies the existence of discontinuity, of transmission of energy in a discontinuous way. Knowledge that is founded on the principle of discontinuity is not evidence of specifically analytic or discursive thought. It is not an expression of conceptual knowledge, but of intuition springing from the imaginary of the depths of existence. Discontinuity stated by quantum physics, in the framework of scientific epistemology, brings into question the entire scaffolding of classical realism, characterized by local causality, unequivocal determinism, neutral objectivity, attributes founded by the principle of continuity.
It can be stated that quantum apophaticism may constitute an interface in the contemporary dialogue between theology and science. Current science acknowledges the rationality and mystery of the world. Orthodox theology, starting with the extraordinary epistemological mutations of the paradigms of contemporary science, could open an honest dialogue with science, revaluating the comprehensive dimension of Patristic Tradition. A profound rationality of the world does not fulfill its ultimate meaning in the absence of the Person Who generated it and reviews all of creation's divine reasons. Beyond the claims of scientific objectivity, the knowledge of these reasons means communion with the divine Word. From this point of view knowledge is a mystery of encounter that bears fruit through the experience of grace. Therefore, apophaticism does not just mean an acknowledgement of the mystery of the world, but especially the experience of the grace that gives knowledge beyond human power.


The concept of levels of reality in physics
and in the theology of Covenant
Thierry Magnin
France


Since the works of Bohr in quantum physics, the logics of included middle have been used in modern science to describe reality to which the observer belongs. It has been translated in terms of levels of reality by the physicist Basarab Nicolescu. The aim of this talk is to show how such logics and concepts can be fruitful to present the notion of Covenant in the Bible, with the own constraints of theology. Such views are quite interesting to enlighten the difficult relationships between the science of evolution and the theology of Creation.


Images of the future
Roberto Poli
Italy


Studies of the future fall under many different denominations, and they employ a huge variety of techniques, ranging from forecasting to simulation, from planning to trend extrapolation, from future studies and scenarios to anticipatory systems. This remarkable variety may be partly simplified by making explicit the main underlying assumptions of at least some of them. Two of these assumptions are that (1) the future is at least partly governed by the past, and (2) the future can be better confronted by opening our minds and learning to consider different viewpoints.
According to (1) the future is part of a structured story whose past and present are at least partially known. The claim is defended that the forces that have shaped past and present situations will still be valid while the situation under consideration unfolds. The core thesis is that the future is embedded in the past; it is the projection of the past through the present. Time series analysis, trend extrapolation, and forecasting pertain to this family.
On the other hand, instead of directly addressing the problem of searching for the seeds of the future in the past, (2) considers the different problem of preparing for the unforeseeable novelties awaiting us in the future. Learning about widely different outcomes is now the issue: one must be ready to consider and address possibly unfamiliar or alien scenarios. The main outcome of this exercise is an increased capacity to distinguish among possible, probable, and preferred future scenarios. These activities come under the heading of future studies, while scenario construction is the best known methodology adopted by practitioners.
For now on I shall refer to (1) and (2) as respectively the forecasting and the scenario viewpoints. Forecasts and scenarios are not contradictory one to the other. They may and usually do coexist, since they address the future from two different standpoints. Furthermore, experience shows that both are useful.
This talk introduces a third, different viewpoint, here termed the viewpoint of anticipatory systems, which can be profitably synthesized with forecasts and scenario; i.e. it is not contradictory with the claims of either the forecasting or scenario viewpoint.
Anticipatory theories have been proposed in fields as different as physics, biology, physiology, neurobiology, psychology, sociology, economy, political science, computer science and philosophy. Unfortunately, no systematic comparison among the different viewpoints has so far been developed. It is therefore fair to claim that currently no general theory of anticipation is available.
Generally speaking, anticipation concerns the capacity exhibited by some systems to tune their behaviour according to a model of the future evolution of the environment in which they are embedded. Generally speaking, the thesis is defended that "An anticipatory system is a system containing a predictive model of itself and/or its environment, which allows it to change state at an instant in accord with the model's predictions pertaining to a later instant" (R. Rosen, Anticipatory Systems, 1985 (2nd ed. 2007), p. 341). The main difference between forecasting and scenarios on the one hand, and anticipation on the other, is that the latter is a property of the system, intrinsic to its functioning, while the former are cognitive strategies that a system A develops in order to understand the future of some other system B (of which A may or may not be a component element).



Science and Religion - Elements for a New Encounter
Jean Staune
France


Modernity has been constructed upon a sort of ‘Philosophical Yalta'. Science and Religion were conceived as speaking of entirely different worlds and they were never meant to interact. However, scientific revolutions took place in many areas of science in the twentieth century.


- The relativity of time and space then the theory of the Big Bang in astrophysics.
- Particle physics and non-locality in the sciences of matter.
- Godel's theorem in logic.
- Non-linearity and the butterfly effect in the sciences of complexity.
- The Libet experiments showing the reality of Free Will in neurology.


All these conceptual evolutions describe an ‘open' universe, a world which is irreducible to time, space, matter and energy. In such a world the accounts of great religions, without being proven, gain credibility which modernity seems to have denied them. Don't they all assert that another level of reality exists and that the spirit of the human being is in contact with this other level? It is this claim that is supported by the evolution of our knowledge.
In this talk we will discuss the philosophical implications of each of these areas and show that the global picture they provide allows us to bridge the gap between these two scientific and religious/humanist cultures so regretted by C.P. Snow.



Modern Physics and Transdisciplinarity
Marijan Sunjic
Croatia


Great advances of classical physics in the 19th century, with its deterministic character, seemed to announce the triumph of the «scientific method», which promised to solve all important questions regarding nature and humanity, thus arrogantly claiming all other human achievements, including arts and humanities, and especially religion to be irrelevant. This gave support to materialist and positivist tendencies in philosophy, as well as to extreme scientism.
However, several surprising developments in the 20th century, including quantum physics and relativity, soon revolutioned physics. With their intrinsic nonlocality and indeterminism, they shattered and changed not only the preconceived ideas about scientific research, but they also modified the conceptual framework of our approach to reality. Many of the previously accepted dogmas were reconsidered, like the (inductive) «scientific method», creation of hypotheses and their verification, subject-object interference, the realism of physical theories, the use of ordinary language in science. A reductionist program had to be extended to include complexity and emergence. Suddenly the arrogance of the 19th century science disappeared, giving way to more tolerant attitudes. It became obvious that our knowledge based on scientific research was essentially limited, and this convinced (some) physicists that other ways of acquiring knowledge were not only acceptable but even necessary. This included other scientific disciplines, humanities, philosophy, but also religious experience in many forms, and especially ethics, in research itself but even more in its technological applications.
In this paper I discuss these developments in modern physics which opened the way to transdisciplinarity, but also the problems which arise in establishing this dialogue from the present specialization and fragmentation of science.



Transdisciplinary Hermeneutics
John van Breda and Basarab Nicolescu
South Africa and France


Overcoming the disciplinary divide is a precondition to finding long-term, durable solutions to the current planetary and local crises. The complexity of the problems, and their fast becoming irreversibility, cannot be solved from within our mono-disciplinary knowledge-systems and institutions. The complex world with its complex problems clearly constitutes a transdisciplinary challenge. Transdisciplinarity with its twin-goal of understanding and meeting the challenges of our troubled world concerns that which is at once between the disciplines, across the disciplines and beyond the disciplines. Transdisciplinarity, whilst acknowledging the efforts of multi- and inter-disciplinarity, also recognises that transcending disciplinary boundaries is imperative in achieving the goal of the unity of knowledge. Our disciplinary knowledge-systems have certainly allowed us to accumulate vast amounts of knowledge about the world. However, do we understand the world and ourselves in the world any better? Can we, or should we, keep on producing more disciplinary knowledge about the world if this does not necessarily increase our understanding of the world? Therefore, understanding the complex challenges we are facing today and crossing the disciplinary boundaries we have erected and institutionalised around ourselves are inextricably interwoven.
The big question, therefore, is how do we do this? How do we understand the process of going ‘beyond' our disciplinary boundaries in a context of hyper-specialised and institutionalised disciplinarity? Is it possible to imagine the emergence of a transdisciplinary understanding and knowledge of the world ‘across' the disciplinary boundaries which we have given almost reified or metaphysical status through a relentless process of repetition, of affirmation and self-affirmation? Using as points of departure the three axioms of transidisciplinarity - levels of reality, the included middle and complexity, and integrating these ideas with the dialogic hermeneutics of Hans-George Gadamer, we offer a positive response to these vexing questions. This we do by developing a systematic argument that a transdisciplinary ‘fusion of horizons' is indeed a realistic possibility. We also argue that this should be seen as a dynamic, emergent process. This means that the emergence of a transdisciplinary understanding and knowledge of the complex world is more than just the sum total of the contributing disciplines - transdisciplinary knowledge has emergent properties which are irreducible to the individual disciplines contributing to and participating in a transdisciplinary dialogue.
We conclude that this can only come about as a collective effort between all the disciplines concerned with bridging the disciplinary divide as a basis for finding sustainable solutions to the problems of our fragmented world. The religion/science/art debate should not see itself in isolation from this broader challenge of developing a more general transdisciplinary hermeneutics. The religion/science/art debate, however, has much to gain from participating in and contributing to a transdisciplinary hermeneutics. But on what basis should the religion/science/art debate participate in such a broader dialogue? What are the consequences of this for the religion/science/art debate? ‘Love' has been defined by Paul Tillich as the ‘overcoming of that which has been separated'. This definition of love not only allows us to see another dimension - the spiritual dimension - in our transdisciplinary efforts, but it also acts as a basis for participation in the broader dialogue. In so doing, the religion/science/art debate creates the opportunity for opening itself up to be enriched and infused by new ideas and insights generated by a wider transdisciplinary dialogue on how to overcome those boundaries that have been allowed to separate and fragment the unity of our knowledge.


On Not Speaking in So Many Words: Ontological Apophaticism and Metaphysical Reticence in the ‘Science and Religion Dialogue'
Eric Weislogel
USA


My paper will consider the question of whether apophaticism might make a contribution to the "science and religion dialogue." In working this out, I will note that there is no such thing as science simpliciter or religion simpliciter. There is only biology, or molecular biology, or neuroscience, or Wesleyan systematic theology, or Orthodox dogmatic theology, or Franciscan spirituality, or Sufism, etc.—and even these have fuzzy borders. "Science" and "religion" are not disciplines. One cannot, strictly speaking, become a disciple, from the Latin discipulus for "pupil," of science or of religion. So a "science and religion dialogue," strictly speaking, cannot happen in so many words because the dialogue partners would seem to lack a certain substantial reality. A cataphatic, propositional approach to such a transdisciplinary dialogue is problematic.
And yet: I will be speaking, even strictly speaking, in so many words, about a dialogue that is, strictly speaking, in so many words, impossible. How can we speak about the impossible?


TALKS

Qualia - Paradoxes; a Transdisciplinary (Re)Search within
the Dialogue between Science, Art and Religion
Nicolae Bulz
Romania


The members of a real society (re)act according to their biological and technical spheres, to their aggregation, to their profoundness. So, a society is an implicit processor versus relative sub-processors dealing with revisited information-decision-action-renewed information cycles. These cycles interfere with the Science-Religion-Arts-Philosophy-Management flow(s), presenting subtle connection(s): awareness-insight-action.
The scientific, artistic and religious approaches upon the transit: societal processor <=> sub-processors may be an inter/trans-disciplinary one. This study generates an inside of the gap between deep reality and our reflection, involving: societal knowledge desire as a holistic aim of our mind(s); potential artistic and religious aggregated attitude(s) as profoundness levels of our consciousness; a probabilistic approach upon the Universal Consciousness and Evil terms and their necessary connectionist corpus. Humankind development is stepped by paradoxes within our revealing/revising models.
So, according to N desired features of an entity, responsive to our Qualia, the previous probabilistic / stochastic models of the entity "society"(containing some paradoxes) may be revised versus a new interdisciplinary approach within fuzziness, and a new transdisciplinary approach within subtleness (onto it N-1 / N ratio would converge to 1).
Into this context, the study aims to demonstrate that "paradoxes" and "Qualia" belong to different (multi-disciplinary, today) domains (Logic and Cognitive Science) but stating connected, would elicit some impressive turning points toward the dialogue between science, art and religion, within their natural and artificial bases of neuro, psycho, and social levels of reality. All these dreaming, within an universal versus cosmic tension, toward "the Real".
The (re)search tries to aggregate the results from three domains: (1) the "dialogue" between the texts of Saint Basil the Great, Saint Maxim the Confessor, Pascal - Gödel, Heisenberg, Schrödinger; (2) the Qualia - Paradoxes expected to be revised within Romanian wooden Triads (Troitze), glass icons from Transylvania area; (3) the Qualia - Paradoxes correspondence within sacred and profane sites from Dobrudja and Transylvania areas.


Iconic Apophatism and the dialogue of religion and science at
Fr. Dumitru Staniloae and Fr. Ghelasie Gheorghe.
Recent contributions of Romanian theology
Florin Caragiu, Mihai Caragiu
Romania


We present some fundamental aspects of iconic anthropology, a possible place of the dialogue between theology and science, as reflected in the works of Fr. Dumitru Staniloae and Fr. Ghelasie Gheorghe. The triadological and iconological foundations of their conception are highly relevant for the Christian tradition of thought where apophatic and cataphatic aspects of knowledge are kept in a balanced and dynamical relationship. We see that the works of the fore mentioned Romanian Fathers bring out important implications of the theological thought on the anthropological and cosmological level. The iconic perspective on anthropology and cosmology is in fact specific for the patristic methodology, in which one manifests equally in theology and culture an open attitude towards experience and communion. The doctrines of Logos and Trinity, of Being, Persons and Energies in God help to discern a non-antagonistic distinction between the noetic and dianoetic processes of knowledge. The personalist orthodox approach distinguishes without separation the soul and the multiplicity of energies reflecting its apophatic movements. For indicating the level of integral movements of the soul in its undivided simplicity the discursive character of thinking operating in the case of partial reasons does not suffice. That is the reason why the theological language needs the symbol and the antinomy as specific ways of indicating not only towards the divine transcendence, but even towards a transcendental level of the created being. In the orthodox methodology one can distinguish and reconcile ontological levels of unity and plurality. The orthodox gnoseology presents a double methodology in an unitary view, without falling to the temptation of developing a reductive monistic or dualist approach. The area of science is that of the created energies, of the decomposable levels of reality. Science cannot give direct evidence on the soul itself, a level of reality which is beyond its domain of competence. Theology has as principal goal man's salvation in communion with God, and its efforts are concentrated towards a holistic and eucharistic finality. But science is unseparable from theology as soul is unseparable from its movements and their partial reflections in the realm of multiple energies.



Revelation and knowledge. Preliminaries for a working methodology
in view of achieving an encounter of science with religion
(an orthodox perspective).
Fr. Ioan Chirila
Romania


Revelation - apokalypsis, revelo, -are - to reveal, to reveal itself, revelation: inside Christianity, it is understood as the sum of the actions and of the words through which God reveals Himself to mankind, as well as His will towards man and creation. Since the Middle Ages, the idea of an antinomy between revelation and knowledge has been imposed everywhere, constantly asserting that revelation is an act/ a sum of acts which transcends the logical sphere of creation and, therefore, has nothing to do with science.
As long as revelation takes place inside creation through the agency of the human person, with the purpose of moral fulfillment for the latter, we think that this kind of statement is no longer plausible. This is why we are trying here, in this short paper, to propose some methodological elements which could create the possibility of identifying the cataphatic and apophatic structures of the revelation through which it contains, in a complementary and a complet way, the scientific knowledge.
Knowledge - lat. connoscere (cognoscere) - to assume knowledge of objects and of surrounding phenomena, reflected in conscience; to establish in an objective way the nature, the characteristics of a thing, the relations between phenomena, to give them an interpretation corresponding to the truth; to have or to get knowledge based on objective investigation and on experience; to assume knowledge of something; to know, to find out who/ what is somebody/ something, to identify something; to take knowledge by itself of something.
Our speech tries to point out the existing epistemological correspondences between theological knowledge and the scientific one, to indicate the identities of meaning, to identify the structural identities of expression and demonstration.
Methodology - Met-odos-logos - I would like to underline the diversity of the meanings of this term. Each branch of knowledge asserts that its own method for verifying the truth is true and self-sufficient. But do we have here the whole truth or should we accept the fact that the truth is trans-disciplinary, is in, between and beyond any episteme, phoneme, paradigm, axiom, theorem, equation? that it is in an area of the interval, according to the definition given by Andrei Pleşu to the angels: beings of the interval? But in the light of revelation, the interval is the way - odos - Christ, and today, Christ is "extended into the social" (see the definition of the Church in the "Orthodox Dogmatic Theology", Bucharest, 1958: The Church is the "continuous" extension of Christ into the social). I confine myself to the idea of the meanings: the transdisciplinarity seeks for the ways in which the reality and the uniqueness of the meaning can be revealed. Therefore, it seems to me proper to assert that the immediate method which theology suggests is that of "rendering complementary the ways in which knowledge is realized" and that of "making actual the patristic interpretation" (hermeneia), so that we may rediscover the authenticity and the truthfulness of the assertion of Saint Maxim the Confessor, who says that "the entering of Christ into history has changed its meaning, its meaning is no longer death, but the resurrection, and the whole creation has but one direction: the eschatological one".
Within the methodological corpus proposed by theology, the first hermeneutical practical element taken into consideration is: establishing a common vocabulary and identifying the language's unity of meaning. Many scholars and applicants in the transdisciplinarity area confess that, for example, when the word "knowledge" is pronounced, each one understands it as it is explained in its own field. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to start this project, as the proclamation of transdisciplinarity says, by stating the hermeneutical landmarks which could make possible the realization "of the meeting-in-word area" of the diversities, by preserving the identities. As a first method of work, I would consider "the investigation of the actions". According to the Christian view, any act has a moral coordinate, it is a reflection of the ethical substance of the participants. The working method would be, therefore, the analytic method, the synthetic method and the "conjunction method", that is, establishing the connections, the meeting-in-word areas, the semantic interferences. But this supposes, at first, the exact and objective delimitation of the area of application and of the competence factors engaged in it.
- Transdisciplinarity gives the possibility for the analytic method to enter in the area beyond the word or, as the Most Reverent Bartolomeu said, "behind the word is the unique truth hidden in its transcendence in a continuous offering, revelation, enlightening".
- Transdisciplinarity may be a bridge, a way of an objective realization of the dialogue Science-Theology (Religion); religion proposes a re-binding of the parts by regaining the being-in-faith state.
- The methods can be also identified when we start from the semiotics area. Saint John Chrysostom said that inside Christianity, the symbol is assumed, embraced, embodied in the one who is symbolized by it, the symbol does not disappear, as a traffic sign, after you left it behind. This understanding, with some minor adjustments, can be found in the transdisciplinarity's Moral Project, therefore, the transdisciplinarity may be a Mediator, although the unique Mediator can be only Christ (see what Paul says to Timothy).
- Epistemology offers many areas of communication: take a look at the parables, at the elements of the science of those days, appealed to by Christ or by the Apostles: it is about the communication of forms, the transmission or communication of the working instruments.
- Literature and exact sciences in their mystic relevance etc.



Mystery of God, Mystery of Creation
Valentin Cioveie
Romania

The main parts of the presentation:
1. Apophatic and cataphatic dimensions regarding God and the Creation.
2. Theological apophatism and non-duality.
3. Scientific apophatism in quantum mechanics.
4. Final conclusions.


From Dionysios Pseudo-Areopagite onwards it has been maintained that the terms 'apophatic', 'apophatism' are used to signify a hidden dimension of the Living Absolute (and of man as being created in the likeliness of God). The first question we have to answer today, when the scientific knowledge overwhelms us, is if we could justified apply the term 'apophatic' to the Nature. In other words we have to confront us with the interrogative problematic: Is it the world (the physical Visible) also apophatic? This together with a first determination of the notions of 'apophatism' and 'cataphatism' will constitute the introductory remarks to my paper.
In the next part I concentrate myself on the traditional notion of apophatism. Father André Scrima has been speaking in different papers and works of three stages of apophatism. I want to develop shortly his thoughts regarding the last apophatical stage, and how the apophatic and cataphatic dimensions at this stage become each other intricated. The paradoxical character of the human knowledge about God will be illuminated from different points of view: I presuppose as known the patristical terminology (Lossky, Stăniloaie etc.), and try to deepen its meanings with the help of concepts taken from philosophy (Mihai Şora - 'the organic relation') or from history of religion (Advaita Vedanta - 'non-duality').
The third part of the paper pays attention to the physical Visible. Quantum Mechanics being the fundamental theory of the material world, I will show that the two of the main concepts of quantum mechanics have an apophatical character: 'complementarity' and 'superposition'. Conclusively we can speak of both apophatism and cataphatism in physics.
Final Conclusions
As we can speak of Deus absonditus and of homo absconditus, so can we talk of the deep dimensions of the visible Creation. No wonder that scientists are often so fascinated by this mysterious reality, that they forget God as the only authentic transcendent and absolute Being. Acknowledging this deep dimensions of physical world means not to invent another science but to acquire a sui generis attitude (germ: Haltung) to the Nature, an apophatic attitude which recognizes the principial limits of any cataphatic theory, without dispensing of the theoretical level. It also implies to better see the restricted place of science in the whole spiritual path of human being. The last words of my intervention will give a short survey of a possible educational system which takes into account the stages of spiritual life (Evagrius, Maxim, Stăniloae).


Carmina Aratea
Ioana Costa
Romania


Aratos of Soloi (third century BC) is the author of a minor masterpiece, famous both in Greek and Latin literature; he was also cited in the New Testament. His hexameter poem, Phaenomena ("Appearances"), describing the constellations and other celestial phenomena, is the setting into verse of the prose treatise of Eudoxos. The fate and fame of Aratos's Phaenomena bears out the allegation that the literary gifts are significant for the transmission of ancient texts. Aratos enjoyed immense prestige among Hellenistic poets and, consequently, famous writers translated his work into Latin: Cicero, Germanicus, Avienus. It appears that already in antiquity the text of the Phaenomena has generated a complex set of variants, as the result of being much read and studied: the medieval manuscripts and the recently published papyri attest an extensive text transmission. On the other hand, the treatise of Eudoxos of Cnidos, the source of the poem, is lost. Among the Latin translations, Germanicus's Aratea was enriched with reflexes of the commentary Hipparchus made in the second century BC; bearing a subtle personal sigillum, this Latin Aratea largely substituted Aratos's poem during the medieval times.

The Limits of Apophatic Theology According to Orthodox Tradition
John Lincoln Downie
USA

The key realities pertaining to apophatic theology have been clearly delineated throughout the history of Orthodox theology. Father Dumitru Staniloae offers us what could be considered the epitome or culmination of Orthodox understanding of apophatic theology. His explanations came from years of research and personal experience in this domain. He, however, did not touch explicitly on the limitations or circumscription of this "method" of theology. Through careful investigation, this essay will present the historical approach that Orthodox theologians had concerning apophatic theology, leading to and encompassing the open armed thought of one of the greatest theologians of the last century. On this basis, we will try to draw certain conclusions from the direction and meaning that this term has had in connection with the living and real experience of it even in our day and age. How this method is limited, and what its limits are will be clarified.
The way in which science is integrated into the central reality of apophatic experience will also be elaborated. The important role that science has in the life of the world will be analyzed and brought into the context of quotidian existence. Science is actually a domain inside of the larger and more mysterious realm of consciousness and God-consciousness. This reality is clear, perceptible and more "tangible" than any subjective-objective experiment, since this perception takes place on a more profound level of existence. For the vast majority of "theologians" who have never directly experienced apophaticism, we can only refer to this reality by word of mouth, or through studying intellectually the spiritual works that these true "scientists" left behind for us.
Understanding the limits of apophaticism in Orthodox theology will shed boundless light on the dialogue that is taking place between science and Orthodox theology.


Reshaping the Social Sciences by the Ttransdisciplinary
End-Means Methodology
Liviu Drugus
Romania


After (re)defining the essence of human action as a function of Aims, Means and Aims-Means level of adequacy I also redefined the three most important disciplines studying human action: Politics as the study of establishing human ends in function of the present and future existing means, Economics as the study of collecting, combining and consuming means in function of pre-defined human ends, and Ethics as the study of the level of adequacy (the high level of it is defined as "good") between purposes and means. There are at least seven fundamental triads that are helping us to analyze and improve the level of efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency of human action. Management is (re)defined as a transdisciplinary approach of human action. So, Management is, simply, the everyone's mode of thinking and acting. This implies to clearly define the proposed ends, the necessary means and the degree of their matching one to the other. In such a view, Management is the synergic effect of Politics, Economics and Ethics. Of course, psychology, sociology, statistics, demography, anthropology, linguistics, pragmatics, praxeology, semiotics, history, prognosis, logic, neurology and neurophysiology, cognitive sciences and many other disciplines concerned with human thinking and acting are the disciplines beyond, between and across them appears the transdisciplinary model of human thinking and acting called Aims Means Methodology. There are at least some very practical consequences of the new methodological vision: firstly, it is possible to concentrate the three or more disciplines in a solely and integrated corpus of knowledge called "Theory of human thinking and acting" or, simply Aims Means Methodology; secondly, at every new level of formal/ institutional education (starting from gymnasium) it is possible to enlarge and develop this theory, until the very philosophical, scientific and theological level. Thirdly, the political and economic processes shall become more human and human being oriented. The scientific research will be much improved using the simple and synergic approach of transdisciplinary thinking defined by Basarab Nicolescu as one "between, across and beyond disciplines".


The Relationship between Physical Universe and Spiritual Evolution
in Andrei Tarkovsky's Movies
Elena Dulgheru-Jecu
Romania


In all his seven long feature films, Andrei Tarkovsky pleads for the recuperation of the spiritual dimension of contemporary man. Man can't live without sacred, since he is a spiritual been - this is the message of the whole Tarkovskian work. But man forgot his real nature - affirms the filmmaker. The awakening from this amnesia is the major theme of his films.
As an essentially spiritual process, the struggle for the identification of the aim and for rousing from "akedia" are materialized through an exterior trace - the cinematic narrative, which is structurally different in each of the filmmaker's movies.
After an analysis of the dramaturgy and of the decorations, one can notice that the cinematic cronotope (the term was introduced in art's theory by Bahtin, meaning the spatial-temporal universe of the narrative) is deeply related with the spiritual trace of the main character. The filmmaker moulds the cinematic space and time - a virtual universe having a strong metaphysic potential - in accordance with the spiritual requests of the protagonist. Each stage of the hero's inner evolution leads to a modification of the cronotope around him - this is an important aspect of the poetics of the sacred at Tarkovsky.
The spectator sees the things vice versa: he perceives how the tension from the conscience field of the protagonist moulds the spatial-temporal dimensions of the story. The guilt, realising the culpability, the repentance, the salvation, the transfiguration - each of them confers another subjective perspective upon time and space. The space expands or contracts, implodes, vaults or opens to the infinite, depending on the orientation of the hero's "soul lens". The time of the action and meditation orients to the past, present or future depending on the deepest beliefs of the protagonist. These subjective determinations, essential in Tarkovskian poetics, can be explained in the light of the morphology of culture, that is Leo Frobenius' and Lucian Blaga's theories, exposed in their works Paideuma, respectively Horizon and style (see the author's book Tarkovsky. Film as a prayer, Arca Învierii Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004).
Conclusion: In the arts of the show and especially in metaphysic cinema, time and space are products of the conscience and aim to shelter and reflect the spiritual evolution of the character. The cronotope is a materialization of the conscience. The filiation with the Buddhist conception upon created world (the illusory and subjective character of space and time), but also with the post-Apocalyptic status of the physical universe, as described in Saint John's Revelation becomes quite obvious. It sustains the religious character as of Tarkovskian poetics, as of any well-structured aesthetics of transcendency.


Typology: Crossing the Boundaries of Biblical Studies,
History of Hermeneutics, the Visual Arts and Literature.
Tibor Fabiny
Romania


The word typology in biblical studies is a relatively modern coinage, it was not used in patristic literature together with tropologia, allegoria or anagogia. Sometimes it is used as a synonym with figuralism. More than ten years ago I suggested that typology may refer to at least nine things: (1) a way of reading the Bible; (2) a principle of unity of the 'Old' and the 'New' Testaments in the Christian Bible; (3) a principle of exegesis; (4) a figure of speech; (5) a mode of thought; (6) a form of rhetoric; (7) a vision of history; (8) a principle of artistic composition; (9) a manifestation of 'intertextuality'. (In: Tibor Fabiny, The Lion and the Lamb: Figuralism and Fulfilment in the Bible, Art and Literature. London: Macmillan, New York: St Maertin's Press, 1992. pp. 1-2.)
In the lecture now to add that (10) typology is a principle of Wirkunsgeschichte (effective history) in the sense it is used by the Bern New Testament scholar Ulrich Luz and the theoria principle of the Antiochian fathers as suggested by Professor Vasile Mihoc in his study "Basic Principles of Orthodox Hermeneutics" (In: Moisés Mayordomo (Hrsg.) Die prägende Kraft der Texte, Verlag Katholisches Biblewerk GmbH, Stuttgart, 2005. pp-38-64). The present study of figuralism or biblical typology will cover the following issues: 1.Typological Hermeneutics: Pros and Cons in the 20th Century; 2.Typological Hermeneutics in the History of Biblical Interpretation up to the 17th Century; 3. Typological Hermeneutics in Medieval Visual Arts; 4. Typological Hermeneutics in Literature; 5. A Brief Case Study in Wirkungsgeschichte: The Typology of the Lamb (New Testament, Patristic Literature, Middle English Literature, Painting)


Philosophical Apophatism and Theological Apophatism.
The philosophical Language as a Possible Bridge between
the Theological and Scientific Thought.
Victor Eugen Gelan
Romania


The present paper discusses the ways in which philosophy initiates or could initiate a dialogue with theology on the ground of the reflection on apophatism. I will also study the possibility of a dialogue with science that could emerge from combining the philosophical and theological discourse. I will then describe the new perspectives generated by this dialogue. I will argue that philosophical apophatism could be a bridge between theological and scientific thinking. As concerns theological thinking, this bridging is made possible by the fact that philosophical apophatism could be seen as the previous stage to theological apophatism (the last stage the philosopher can reach in his meditation could correspond to the first stage of the theological apophatical thinking). As concerns scientific thinking, the bridging is based on the use of some philosophical concepts. One of them is "organic intrication", from Mihai Şora's philosophy. This concept is directly related with Şora`s philosophical apophatism. The "organic intrication" expresses the idea that cognitive relations cannot be separated from entitative relations and vice versa. Understanding such philosophical concepts could facilitate understanding and clarifying some problems of quantum interpretations regarding the relations between the epistemological level and the entitative (ontic) one. I will then explain the meaning of philosophical apophatism in Mihai Şora's philosophy. I will also analyse the way in which apophatism is understood in the theological (orthodox) thinking of the Church Fathers. I will take into account especially the works of two authors: St. Gregory Palamas and St. Dionysios the Areopagite.
I will show that by bridged philosophical apophatism realizes a better communication between the theological and scientific way of approaching the Reality. I will argue that philosophical language could lead to a real and effective dialogue between the two paradigms of thinking. This could offer a more profound way of understanding Reality itself.


Informatics and religious reality.
Corina Grecu
Romania


In the last century people experienced an explosion of semiconductors and electronic machines, which went hand in hand with man's wish to increase his calculation power. Under these circumstances and keeping in mind the very reasons of human existence, some people imagined a machine able to count and work for man and instead of him.
This was the beginning of a whole new world of interrelated machines, able to organize themselves to a certain extent and in networks of larger or smaller magnitude. They have in common an original and ultimate hierarchical structure, on the one hand, and on the other they bootstrap according to the principle they receive from the organizer of the whole system.
This world of informatics is being regarded as an essential part of the modern world, very different from all previous times. It is my intention to show that there is an obvious continuity between it and the past spiritual history of mankind and that there are striking isomorphisms between informatics and reality as understood from a religious point of view.


Liturgy and Theatre
Răzvan Ionescu
Romania


Almost one century ago K. Holl stressed analogy between the Byzantine Liturgy and the Drama-Theatre during the ancient times ; two decades later Robert Will - a Protestant Theologian plainly asserted that the outer face of the Orthodox Liturgy celebrates the Mystery of the Salvation, and reproduced its history in a "Dramatic Trilogy" . Obviously, the liturgy can be regarded as scenic representation of the Biblical events and the historical existence of Jesus Christ.
For many of persons living in Thallia's shade the extremely condensed hieratical symbolism of the liturgical Theo-drama and its density of meanings can be considered confusing, and the understanding becomes more difficult because of the false lack of fluency, which is characteristic for the theatre. Nonetheless, there is another category of theologians that accuse the exaggerated essentialisation of the liturgical scenario. For the man of theatre that has not "decipher" so far this scenario, many times the understanding can be obscured by the existence of two simultaneous ceremonies, one in the Altar and the other "at sight", although the very existence of these two parallel rituals, which recall the situation of the "Theatre-within-Theatre", represents one of the spectacular features of the Orthodox Christian Cult. From the point of view of the horizontal analysis we can mention that we are faced with the total play from which the spectacular gestures and movements, exceptional voices, beautifully adorned garments, and impressive scenography are not missing.
As a Mystery played on the Holy Stage of the Church, the Liturgy can be regarded as a dialogue-like drama conducted by the priest, assisted from time to time by the deacon and always by the choir of the parishioners - ς - reminding of the Greek Theatre.
The Liturgy is a scenic representation of the Bible, i.e. The Word expressed within the liturgical play. For this "play" of the Theo-drama the liturgical ceremony thoroughly built its framework: the temple as architectural jewel, the shapes and colours, the poetry, and the singing. The totality of such instruments addresses the human person as an entity. The attitude of the liturgical ceremony demands sobriety and artistic good-taste. The Church is an ideal stage for the synthesis of the art forms. The ecclesial architecture should consider the manner the outside light fills the inner spaces, the apparently insignificant detail represented by the incense smoke that wraps the frescoes, enhancing at the same time the inner spaces with its spiral and softening the roughness of the shapes. The plasticity and the rhythm of the clergy, the colourful combination of the fabrics of great value, as well as the intimate and mysterious atmosphere of the candle light compose the stage of the Theo-drama. The synthesis of such an ecclesial stage combines together not only the fine arts, but implicitly the vocal art and the poetry, as the divine ceremony is placed within the esthetical layer, like the musical drama. All is subordinated to the sole purpose represented by the cathartic impact of such a drama.
The esthetical virtues of the liturgical ceremony and its whole "arsenal" of symbolic instruments that renders the weight of the Theo-dramatic mystery can lead us toward this analysis of the liturgical ceremony regarded as scenic representation. We can consider that each strictly esthetical work includes a triptych where the artist, his work and the audience. The artist performs his play, gives life to his entire giftedness, and calls forth the admiring emotion within the witness' soul. The theatre play is performed to be watched. It enchants the minds but has no liturgical function. The liturgical ceremony, be it considered as a Theo-drama, transcends the emotional layer manifested through sensibility and breaks the immanence of the esthetical triangle mentioned above. The Theo-drama becomes Theo-phany.



The Anthropic principle - meeting point between the scientifical and theological perspective.
Fr. Gheorghe Istodor
Romania


The present scientific perspective shows that the new cosmologic paradigm is quite similar to the theological one revealed by the relationship between the man and the Universe, as well as both their connections with God - the meaning and the purpose of creation.
Formulating the anthropic principle with its two sides- strong and weak- shows the openness of the contemporary science towards some unimaginable dimensions and, in the same time, its liberation from the ideological slavery in which it was held for a long period of time.
Even though there are still some skeptic and slow- adapting scientists, the anthropic principle gives big hopes to those who believe that a dialogue between science and theology is necessary. Moreover, the anthropic principle represents the most efficient remedy against chance and necessity providing that the principle shouldn't be formulated and confessed only in a naturalist environment. If this doesn't happen, the anthropic principle can release not only science from the autocracy of scientism and the materialist atheism, but it can set free also the scientist who- in most cases- lives desperately inside an intellectual prison, similar to the "Bermuda triangle", bordered by three metaphysical views on the world: deism, pantheism and atheism. And the most important thing for the principle and its study is not its freedom of acting, but precisely the Redemption.


Between Science and Religion: Who Unifies, Who Divides?
Radu Jecu
Romania


In the frames of the dialogue between science and religion, we intend to emphasise one of the most surprising and paradoxical phenomena from nowadays: science unifies, while the diversity of religions divides. Our paper enhances this theme, in circumstances specific to Romania, the member of the European Union with the most numerous Orthodox Church.
Everyone can notice the acceleration of the globalisation processes. The serious problems of humanity can't find any more their solutions, but through an extensive approach, through the assuming of responsibility of all the states and measures concerning us all. The most recent example is the worldwide alert provoked by the global heating. Since many years scientists from the developed countries had expressed their worries concerning the malefic consequences of an economic evolution generating major ecological disharmonies. One of these negative effects is the rising of the average annual temperatures, observed by the scientists since the seventh decade of last century. The local or regional measures proved to be inefficient. Then, by politic and economical reasons, the out-of-date technologies were passed to the poor areas of the planet. The politic division and its implications at that time, the tendency to minimize the retechnologisation expenses in the industrialised countries and the weak finances of the importing countries practically led to a redistribution and aggravating of the problems. The fall of the Communism led to the expanding of the worldwide spectra of warnings. The intense mediatisation helped more and more people to realise the imminent risks of irreparable calamities and determined the recent attack of the problem by decision factors from all the levels. Actions concerning a global solving of the situation started to move on.

The unifying role of the science becomes now obvious, whereas the implementation of an efficient international legislation implies complex scientific researches, which should lead to a global use of "pure" technologies and energies. The scientific language tends to become common and global, &in the aim of an efficient transmission, understanding and applying of the researches' results all over the world.
At the same time, the globalisation is seriously obstructed by religious diversity. Traditional societies suppose specific codes of behaviour, based on their own religious doctrines, which are generally applicable for cvasi-homogeneous communities of believers. Modernity conducted to a harsh opposition between believers and "freethinkers", particularly between Christians and atheists, as well as to their cohabitation in the same political-administrative units. The contemporary postmodern society supposes the cohabitation of all kinds of beliefs and religions, in conditions of equality, all over the world. The explosive economic globalisation leads to the proliferation of relations between people of different religions, nationalities, sexual orientations, education. In this composite context, the implications of the plurality of religions in peoples' minds and souls are complex and almost unpredictable. Although they are mediated and sometimes depersonalised by mass-media, human contacts usually suppose the infringement of the cultural- religious customs, and thus to the emergence of some inner conflicts, having a spiritual bases, which can manifest through individual or collective acts of intolerance or, even worse, can degenerate into fanaticism and fundamentalism.


Some Considerations on the Date of Easter
Ioan Macri
Romania


This paper represents an attempt to unify all Christians. It is based on the dialogue between science and religion, a natural strong link towards an ideology for unity. Knowledge of astronomy, history and theology allows scientists and theologians alike to rigorously establish the date for the Easter celebrations. Hence the idea that at the beginning of the 3rd millennium of the Christian era the acceptance of a unique date for Easter would constitute a first step towards the fulfillment of the desiderate for Christian unity. The paper endeavours to explain the scientific and religious fundamental dialogue that gradually and genuinely strengthen the idea of a common calendar. We first deal with the significance of Easter, as differently seen by the Jewish faith and by the Christian faith. The way the Jews and Christians calculate the date of Easter celebration is in accordance with the requirements of the Scriptures and in addition to this, for Christians only, with the requirements of the ecumenical council of Niceea in the year 325. Further on delays and corrections are emphasized. Delays due to the moon - solar calendar for Jews and the solar calendar for Christians, as well as the corrections brought about for the solar calendar. The corrections for the solar calendar not having been unanimously accepted have led to the existence of two Christian calendars. The Gregorian calendar called also "the new style calendar" and used by the catholic/protestant tradition and the Julian calendar also called "the old style one" and used by the orthodox tradition. The conclusion shows that the hypothesis of unification of the calendars rests both on a theological as well as a scientific basis, intrinsically correct for both sides. The implementation from a hypothetical desideratum to actual accomplishment implies the presumption of an ideal visionary orthodox-catholic council. We may wishfully assume that this council's workings would proceed with authentic benevolence if the solar-lunar Hebraic calendar would undergo some corrections; and why not?
The unification of Christendom would be proof and merger for all those who accept as true a unique God and are bound by His rules.


Searching for a scientific program which can accommodate with theology
Sebastian Mateiescu
Romania


I argue that the scientific program called "the disunity of science" can be a better candidate for the dialogue with theology than the program of "unifying science". The hypothesis I follow is that science should be seen as an activity of contemplating the nature. My argument has three steps. First, I analyze the concept of contemplation used in theology (especially by St Maximus the Confessor). I argue that contemplation has an essential feature: it can be done only with the help of the Holy Spirit. I show how this concept is related with the interpretation of the concept of reality theology provides. In the second step I argue that the conflict between science and theology is rooted in the different interpretations of reality they give. The unifying program maintains that science has succeeded in discovering almost all the laws of the physical world and in the future it will discover all the laws. By unifying these laws science pretends to explain everything. Since we have explained the phenomena what need do we have for postulating God and the Holy Spirit, might say the physicist? God as the Creator of the world is a hypothesis which should be ejected by using Ockham's razor. For contemplating the beauty and harmony of nature a scientist doesn't need to accept the existence of God. For such a scientist the reality or the concept of everything means only the phenomena and the laws that govern them. In the third step I show how the program of "disunity of science" has virtues which can favor the dialogue with theology. It argues against reductionism which is the essential feature of the program of unification. It proposes the local research. This is its most important feature which should be used for arguing in favor of the dialogue. The local research is not explaining the "all". It has no concept of everything. Theories don't mirror the reality but they are the products of human trying to understand the phenomena. They are open theories and very complex. They are built in dialogue with the scientific community and always open to improvement. This last feature shows the modesty of this program. The program doesn't aim to explain everything because it hasn't a definite concept of everything. Hence, at least as a mere possibility, it can extend any time the concept of reality. According to this view the concept of reality has no fixed limits. So we might think that this program can accept the concept of reality proposed by theology. But in this way I think we have overcome the main root of conflict and the possibility of the dialogue between the two domains becomes a real option.


Transdisciplinary Approaches of the Dialogue between
Science, Art and Religion in the Europe of Tomorrow
James F. McGrath
USA


Although ideal typologies for the interaction of religion and science have their place, ultimately it becomes necessary to consider how specific scientific disciplines, conclusions, and technological advances relate to specific traditions and communities of faith. This chapter will investigate the different possible interactions and implications that may result if humans succeed in creating, whether intentionally or as an accidental by-product of computing technology, a genuine artificial intelligence. Previous studies have considered how various religious perspectives might assess the implications of the mere existence of such technological advances for their theological and moral systems (e.g. the traditional doctrine of the soul). Less has been written exploring the possibility of, and what it would me for, an artificial intelligence to adhere to one of these traditionally human religious worldviews. As a thought-experiment, this paper will consider how an artificial intelligence might evaluate and interact with key ideas and practices in Christianity, Buddhism and atheism, as well as the responses these traditions might offer.


Transdisciplinary bridge towards... Wolrd's rationality.
How is it possible for man to meet the world, their fellows and God?
Sorin Mihalache
Romania


Steps to in the last century many findings show the extraordinary nature of the world we live in. Neurosciences, Cosmology, Particle Physics, Genetics have produced results and data that have changed the paradigm of the world. These changes are unprecedented in the area of scientific knowledge and prove that we live in a most spectacular world.
The nuclei of our body were manufactured billions of years ago in stars that have long ceased to exist. Radiations reveal an important part of the history of the Universe. Particle physics shows that every day billions of neutrinos pass through our bodies, yet we possess consciousness and have the ability to analyze the world.
We are capable of intuitions that skip the stages of logical thinking. We have a particular way of thinking that is not limited to algorithms (Penrose). We are able to know the world in a different, sudden, unmediated and intuitive manner. We possess an artistic sense which is why there is a certain type of truth which is accessible to us even without a method (Gadamer). Religious experience and theological reflection reveal that there exists a different type of edifying, mystagogic experience (Dionysius the Areopagite). Neurosciences have already highlighted the fact that what we experience determines our neurochemistry and physiology and that many physical disorders develop much earlier from psychological imbalances (Psychosomatics). It is very important then that human beings decide sensibly on the experiences they embark upon in their daily lives. For a long time art has been probing the ineffable whereas religious experience has been focusing on the apophatic. Conversely, one has come to certain limits of language, of the power of formal calculation, leading even to the exhaustion of concepts.
For a century certain frontiers of knowledge have been explored systematically, while in recent decades a series of trailblazers have been getting the results gathered here, trying to collect them together. Has anything fundamental changed, to a similar extent, in our communities, at local or global level? Have these extraordinary results been brought into our schools, in education, in arts or culture? Have these miracles applied to the daily life of the contemporary man isolated in conurbations, consumed by consumerism and exhausted by entertainment? The efforts at the frontiers of sciences and the findings they engendered have not had the expected effects. It is up to the present generation to achieve this (Nicolescu).
The material I will present seeks to argue from a scientific philosophical and theological perspective the need for trans-disciplinary hermeneutics for our development and formation in the immediate future of our society.


The synthesis of scientific knowledge in the „Dogmatics"
of St. John of Damascene.
Fr. Dorin Oancea
Romania


When dealing with different contemporary problems, Orthodox theologians always refer to the Church Fathers, in order to preserve the continuity with the Holy Tradition, the second source of divine revelation. Therefore, in order to understand the Orthodox attitude towards science one should look for significant models at the Fathers.
The most important synthesis of patristical reflection is given in his „Dogmatics" by St John of Damascus, the last important Father, who lived in the 7th-8th century. 12 chapters of the book are dedicated to the visible world from the scientific point of view of a highly educated and deeply religious man. It is the purpose of this research first of all to identify and analyze these scientific structures in the framework of a so important theological synthesis of patristic thought. We also aim at a valuation of contemporary scientific ideas for the benefit of the theological discourse.


Elements of Scientific Culture in the "Hexaemerone"
of Saint Basil the Great.
Fr. Aurel Pavel
Romania


The beginning and the end of mankind and of the Universe, the mystery of the origins and of the end of mankind, our temporary and eternal destiny, have been along centuries an obsessing preoccupation of Theology and Science.
Approaching this mystery from a Christian perspective, the Church's theology has always attempted to express and provide good reason for the Biblical revelation regarding Genesis and the end of mankind and of the World into its limit and/or apologetic junction with the parallel vision of the philosophers and leading scientists throughout times.
On the other hand, the entire science reveals the autonomous existence of the Universe, the comprehensiveness of existing matter, but still does not guide us to the existence of God; it rejects the concept of an independent God because of the scarce testimonies.
To attenuate this conflict has been made several apologetic attempts.
Our Holy Fathers as the Prophet Moses, the author of the Biblical Book of the Genesis, have perceived the World as a mystery, like it was set up from the very beginning. To this concept is joining Saint Basil the Great in his Homilies to "Hexamerone", a work which became a reference point in the dialogue between theology and profane sciences.



Transdisciplinary hermeneutics in contemporary theology
Fr. Gheorghe Popa
Romania


In May 2006, the Board of "Al. I. Cuza" University of Iasi approved the establishment of the Centre for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research of Religion and Science. Active members of the Centre include university professors, lecturers, research fellows and MA students at the faculties of theology, philosophy and sciences.
The main objective is to create a framework for dialogue and research between the three fundamental fields of knowledge. To this goal hermeneutics as a theory of interpretation and understanding plays an essential role in each of these fields.
In this paper I will focus on the concept of hermeneutics as it is understood and defined by contemporary theology and will also emphasise the need for trans-disciplinary hermeneutics in the dialogue between theology, art and science. The content will be:

1. Hermeneutical dimension of the Patristic theology.
2. Concept of hermeneutics in the modern theology
3. Transdisciplinarity - an exigency of modern theology's hermeneutics. Transdisciplinary orientations in the actual theology's hermeneutics

Science behind the Ancient Egyptians' Religion
Ioana Carmen Popescu
Romania


Ancient Egyptian civilization has always intrigued and attracted in a unique way the modern people attention. They were famous among the others ancient civilisations for their knowledge of magic strongly related to the medicine, religion and science as well. It seemed that all three of them have peacefully coexisted without any the interference of any conflict. It was very usual to combine the remedies prescribed by the physicians with the magical practices and prayers to gods.
One can say that magic was some kind of "bridge" between science and religion in Ancient Egypt. The relation between the three of them is rather complex.
The Egyptian terms used on the medical papyri are extremely difficult to be understood so many of the illness and treatments remains under a big question mark.
Beginning with the sixth century BC supplementary information came from the Greek medical writers, who admitted that their medical practice was grounded on the Egyptians' one. The present contribution aims to analyse the relationship between religion, magic practices and science from the latter viewpoint.



Local range and Universality in Science and Orthodoxy
Ionel Popescu, Iulian Popescu
Romania


The problems of plurality and unity can be spotted back to the ancient Greek philosophy. We point out some ancient modes of its solving and its special assimilation and development in the Christian tradition marked by the divine revelation. In the same time, we will remark its continuity and actuality in the modern thought. We follow with some considerations on the orthodox ecclesiological view about the relation between the local and catholic Church. The relational and iconological importance of symbols and hierarchies in the liturgical ethos of the Church will be brought into light. Next we make some exemplifications of the relation between locality and universality in scientific methodology: Cantor sets, fractals, manifolds, quantum mechanics, diagonalisation methods. We make some remarks on the methodological differences and similarities between scientific and religious approach, stressing finally their relevance for the dialogue between science and religion.


Human Genome - Present and Perspectives
Octavian Popescu
Romania


The human genome, a genuine "book of life", underlies the fundamental unity of all human beings, as well as the recognition of their inherent dignity and diversity. The mapping, sequencing and analysis of the human genome are a remarkable achievement and a fundamental advance in self-knowledge. The total size of the human genome is 3.2 gigabases. Only 1.1% to 1.4% is sequence that actually encodes protein; that is just 5% of the 28% of the sequence that is transcribed into RNA. More than half of the DNA consists of repeated sequences of different types: 45% in four classes of parasitic DNA elements, 3% in repeats of just a few bases, and about 5% in recent duplications of large segments of DNA. By contrast, the puffer fish has a genome that contains very few repeats. But it encodes a perfectly functional creature, so it seems likely that most of the repeats are simply parasitic DNA sequences that use the genome as a convenient host. However, the repeated DNA may have both negative and positive effects. Understanding what does give us our complexity - our enormous behavioral repertoire, ability to produce conscious action, remarkable physical coordination, precisely tuned alterations in response to external variations of the environment, learning, memory, etc. - remains a challenge for the future. What is next? Another half-century of hard work, with new tools and new aims, will be done by armies of biologists. In any case, we need to learn how to take advantage of this "book of life". But we will have also to move from the general to the particular and backward, because each gene is a story in itself and its full importance can be learned only from its distinct properties. Individual humans differ from one another by about one base pair per thousand (0.1%). These differences, called "SNPs" (single nucleotide polymorphisms), provide us with the power to reveal the genetic basis of our particular competence such as mathematical ability, memory, physical coordination, creativity, etc. Biology today enters a new era and will become an engine of development of our society. In such a context, we will be able to customize our life experiences to our genetic heritage, and to some extent, to control that inheritance.


The Dialogue between Science and Religion and the Society
Magda Stavinschi, Radu Constantinescu, Gelu Călina
Romania


Our opinion is that the dialogue between science and religion exists ever since the human being tries to seize what is happening around him, to know or even to master nature, without, by this, having forgotten that he was not the Creator. Religion and Science have always carried on a dialogue, only it was not an openly declared one. During the last decades, and the John Templeton Foundation is perhaps the best example of this matter, people become more and more preoccupied by the way through which exist the two ways of knowing the world: the material one-science and the spiritual one-religion. In Romania, these lines of interests are rather recent. The question that we ask ourselves and to which we try to provide some answers are: would this be only an elite's concern? Does this come only from a simple curiosity? Would not it rather be that the last decade's society owning an unseen before technological evolution, might finally turn its face towards God? Is this dialogue useful to a society which came to jeopardize its very existence by hunting for technical achievements and neglecting religious precepts? If we could know how clarify our questions and especially, if we could find at least some adequate answers, the dialogue into which we have entered might even be benefactor for a society which stands on the edge between matter and spirit.


Johannes Honterus (1498-1549)
an outstanding model of teacher, scientist, religious reformer
and artist for the Europe of the past and of the future.
Gheorghe Stratan
Romania

Dem Lichte brach er neue Bahnen.
Sein Schwert und Schild
War das gedruckte Wort


In this contribution, the life and activity of the greatest personality of Transylvanian Saxons is presented with the aim to emphasize the values of the past as a basis for building the Europe of the future.
With his initiatives and revolutionary thinking, Honterus illuminated the world around him. Compared to his achievements with centuries lasting effects, his recognition in present day Europe is rather modest. This is another reason for bringing his personality into the attention of this Conference. The name of Johannes Honterus is mainly linked to the Religious Reform of the Transylvanian Saxons. In contrast with Western Europe, this reform in Transylvania was pacific, immediately accepted, and successful.Many of his works were absolute premieres in his country, some of them of European importance. From his 14 published books, here we mention only his Latin Grammar (first published in 1530, reedited 16 times during a period of 30 years in many European universities), and the Rudimenta Cosmographica (first published in the same year, reedited 28 times in 58 years).
In 1532 in Basel he has designed, created and edited the first map of Transylvania, map which stood at the bases of Cartography in his homeland for centuries to come.
In Brasov/Kronstadt, Honterus had founded a humanistic school of European importance and value. The students seeking to be admitted flocked from Kronstadt as well as from all over Transylvania, and from European neighbour countries.
In the last part of our communication, we emphasize upon the complex personality of Johannes Honterus - he was not only a real homo universalis but also a man of action, anticipating modern European values.



Food for the God(s). Incense as a Transdisciplinary Vehicle
in Ancient Egypt and Christianity. Similarities and Differences
Renata Tatomir
Romania


From the third millennium onwards, in the ancient world the aromatics were valued on a par with gold. For example, the Old Testament mentioned as ‘incense' several kinds of aromatics, such as balsams, scented woods, fragrant gums and herbs. For its part, the ancient Egyptian tradition mentions an unique aromatic, i.e., Kyphi (kp.t), a compound incense used and valued for its religious, as well as magical and medical purposes. The earliest reference to Kyphi is found in the Pyramid Texts, and afterwards the elaborate rituals prescribed in the Book of the Dead frequently stipulated the use of incense. The major and most precious aromatic resins in the East were however and still are nowadays frankincense and myrrh: Boswellia (frankincense or olibanum), from whom there are over 25 species of trees and it has proved impossible to replicate artificially to any satisfactory level so far, and Commiphora (myrrh). Due to their importance as much for the living people as for the dead, the aromatic resins have constantly had the significant function of transdisciplinary vehicles, inasmuch they combine on one part their medical effects with the magical and religious utterances during the ritual performance on the their part, to get the proper response (i.e., manifestation) of the Sacred - Hierophany - in the human world. The two major branches of the Christian Church, the Roman and Eastern/Orthodox Church - the latter's example being discuss in this paper - have preserved the tradition of using the aromatics during the main parts of the ritual.



Language in Mathematics, Science, and Artificial Intelligence
vs. Language in Theology
Stefan Trausan-Matu, Adrian Lemeni, Florin Caragiu
Romania


This is not a surprise for Christian and other religions that give a fundamental position to language, logos, textual interpretation, and hermeneutics. Language was also a key topic in twentieth century philosophy, in both its main directions: analytic and hermeneutic philosophy. From a mundane perspective, in the context of the Internet and of the World Wide Web, textual communication in emails, instant messaging (chat conversations), blogs, etc., have become in recent years a major component of everybody's life. However, current sciences cannot give a satisfactory theory that covers all the complex aspects of human language.
The Incarnation of the Word as mystery of creation, cornerstone of the communication and communion between God and creation, together with the inter-subjectivity specifically for the human being created after the image of God-Trinity, are the cornerstone of the theology of language. We will stress outstanding characteristics of patristic methodology, referring to the participative logic and the iconic ontology, the reciprocity between the apophatic and the cataphatic dimensions of knowledge, the ascetic method and the mystical experience inseparable from the ecclesial experience that stays at the foundations of theological knowledge. Concepts from theology (as for example communion, partaking, participation, interpenetration) have entered in the theory of discourse (M. Bakhtin) and communication. The dialogical perspective has been affirmed together with the structuralism and phenomenological views. The actual studies on systems show the necessity of a new way of thinking that should contain a corrective to the aspects of extreme fragmentation and specialization manifested in the modern thinking. Pluri-, inter- and transdisciplinarity try to offer solutions to a necessary enlarging of the web of connections and communication between different domains with their distinct methodologies.
Many important mathematical theories (involving sets, groups, rings, fields, lattices, graphs, etc.) are expressed within the realm of first-order logic. The first-order syntax is a system of rules specifying which strings of symbols pertaining to a particular first-order language can be considered to be formulas of that particular language. It also specifies which finite sequences of formulas constitute proofs. On the other hand, the first-order semantics provides concrete interpretations (models) of that particular language: every such a model is a set, while the relation, function, and constant symbols of the language are interpreted as relations, functions and constants associated to that particular set. Two views on truth emerge from this: a syntactic truth, based on the idea of formal proof, and a semantic truth, where "true" is viewed as "true in any model". One of the greatest achievements of modern mathematics is Gödel's Completeness Theorem, to the effect that syntactic and semantic truth are equivalent (cf. John Barwise, An introduction to first-order logic, Handbook of Mathematical Logic, North Holland, 1977, 5-46). In philosophical terms, one of the implications of the Completeness Theorem is that the truth in the discourse associated to the first-order language might be seen as an embodied truth. This suggests connections, at a fundamental level, with both theology (where the idea of embodied truth plays a crucial role, in both the doctrine of Incarnation as well as in the ecclesiological view on the Church), and the arts (cf. Brian H. Baxter, Art and Embodied Truth, Mind, 1983, Vol. XCII, 189-203), which we would like to pursue.